52 Mr. Roscor on Artificial and Natural 
this great task, he has placed the science of Botany ‚upon a firm 
and immoveable foundation ; and if he has at any time erred in 
the application of his own principles, it has been rather from an 
unconquerable reluctance to interfere, more than was necessary, 
with the dispositions of nature, than from the pride of erecting a - 
system which should contravene her works. 
That the system thus formed is an artificial, and not a natural 
one, must be admitted ; and that it was always so considered by 
Linnaeus, is evident from all his works. Yet this characteristic is 
not to be taken without some limitations. And in the first place 
it may be observed, that by the mode of arrangement which he 
has adopted, the major part of all known vegetables are formed 
into their great natural combinations in such a manner as scarcely 
to be susceptible of further elucidation.—Again, the genera of 
Linneus are uniformly natural; or at least display such trivial 
exceptions as to oppose no objection of any moment ; and this 
purity in his genera may be considered as of the utmost im- 
portance to the character, not only of his own, but of any system. 
It is therefore only with respect to the place which each genus 
occupies in his system, that any solid objection can be made; 
and if this be so situated as to be readily discovered, even al- 
though it may not in every instance be found amongst its nearest 
congeners, it is a defect which may be remedied by an accurate 
reference, and which as it is occasioned, so it must be excused, 
by the universality and facility of tbe system. It would perhaps 
be too much to say that such an arrangement could not have 
been effected with less violation of natural affinities ; but certain 
it is that with these affinities he was well acquainted, and the 
preservation of them was constantly in his view; insomuch that, - 
notwithstanding its acknowledged defects, it may, by a due 
attention toits exceptions, be studied as a natural system with 
considerable 
